Tuesday Loves: All About Lighting

Tuesday, January 31, 2012




Source: bhg.com via Katy on Pinterest







These images have me feeling all happy inside when I think about replacing our dining room chandelier. Which is your favorite?
Have a wonderful Tuesday!!

Guest Bathroom Inspiration Board

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. We had so much fun with Bryan's parents who came into town and helped with the nursery. I tell you what.....baby boy's room is really coming together! I am so appreciative of our amazing family who goes out of their way to help us with house projects. We are DONE with the major construction and painting part of everything and even moved the crib from our living room to its rightful place in the nursery, after reenacting one of my all-time favorite scenes from Friends (Chandler is the best....I basically pee my pants every time I watch this).





SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UUUUP! Gah. Funny EVERY time.

Anyway....The nursery is just one part of what we're working on in the house. As I shared here, we have many home goals for 2012 and one of them is to decorate the guest bathroom (although I failed to originally mention this goal...I'm blaming it on pregnancy brain). Bryan replaced the floor tile last year which made a huge difference, but there is still a lot to do in this itty bitty space.

I have learned that I am naturally drawn to calm, relaxing colors like blues, grays, greens, and whites. Despite this fact, I have decided to be a little more adventurous in decorating the guest bath....and I'm pretty pumped about it! Here is an inspiration board that I whipped up to show you all the current "vision" for this room:

Photobucket
Sources: Shower Curtain, Darker Paint Color: Valspar Seine, Lighter Paint Color: Valspar Gray Silt, Framed Prints, Light Fixture, Mirror, Rug, Towels



Fun, right? I don't know when we will actually get around to tackling this project, but it's been on my mind so I thought I'd share :).

Hope the Friends video gave you a good laugh and that you all have an awesome week!



26 Weeks.

Friday, January 27, 2012




How Far Along: 26 Weeks. 14 more to go! (Weird.)
Baby Size: 14 inches long, probably around 2 pounds :)
Total Weight Gain: 18 big ones. Man! It's probably because I've been eating like a man.
Maternity Clothes? *Sigh* I finally gave in and let my mom buy me a pair of maternity jeans. I can still wear all of my normal pants and shirts though with the help of my much loved maternity tanks to cover up/hold it up.
Stretch Marks? Nope.
Sleep: Been sleeping great!
Best moment this week: Getting to watch my belly "pop". I think I've grown a ton in the last few weeks! Also, a stranger asked me when I was due for the first time this week! Pretty exciting.
Miss Anything? Not really. I guess that I miss NOT having my belly be a hand magnet haha. Awk-ward.
Movement: Kicking like crazy still. I'm starting to feel it all day instead of just at night/when I'm still!
Food Cravings: I've had pizza 4 times in the last week and mexican food 5 times.....whoops :). Also, grapes.
Anything making you queasy or sick? Just having an empty stomach. Otherwise, I'm good!
Gender: Still a BOY!
Labor Signs: Heeeeck no.
Belly button in or out? Still an innie, but I've noticed it getting more shallow this week...
Wedding rings on or off? On, and still loose.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Pretty happy lately!
Looking forward to: Getting the nursery done, registering, and starting birth classes in the next few weeks! We get a hospital tour....I'm pretty excited about that!

Have a great weekend! Also....thank you SO much for all of your sweet comments on my Etsy Shop announcement yesterday! I'm very excited and so happy to have such supportive readers!



Twenty Three Oh One: The Etsy Shop

Wednesday, January 25, 2012



Hello, friends! First, I want to say thank you so much for your sweet comments these past few days and thank you to all of my new followers for deciding that I'm cool enough to keep up with :). I am very happy that you are here!

Today, I am SO SO SO pumped to finally introduce my new Etsy Shop, (creatively named) Twenty Three Oh One. I have thought a lot about really getting into this business in the last year, and have spent the past 3 weeks coming up with new designs and getting everything ready to go. This type of work energizes me and is truly something that I enjoy so I hope you all like it too!

And now on to some shameless promotion: My shop specializes in digital stationery designs that are fun, fresh, clean, and modern. I design birth announcements, save the dates, greeting cards, and various party invitations. I don't have that many items listed yet, but I try and add a few new designs every couple of days so check back often!


Here are just a few of the items that you will see if you head over to the shop:














AND, since I love ya'll so much, I am offering a special discount to my blog readers!

Enter the code 2301BLOG upon purchasing a listing to receive 25% off your order!
Coupon is good until February 14th. :)

And just in case you forget my where my shop is located, I have added a little button to my sidebar...check it out!

Oh! I almost forgot! I also created a Facebook page, so if ya'll could go and like it, that would be awesome :). I will post new items on it every week and am hoping to include blog updates as well!


I'm feeling really self conscious  and awkward about posting this right now...is that weird?

Okay, I'm done. Have a great Thursday!



Guest Posting at Michaela Noelle Designs!



Hello, everyone! Today I am very happy to say that I will be participating in sweet Michaela's "She Loves Me" series on her site, Michaela Noelle Designs. Go check it out, you will love her blog!


Michaela Noelle


Happy Wednesday!


Oh! P.S: I got a couple of questions from my post on our crib regarding how we went about painting it. My bad for not explaining earlier! I actually didn't sand it at all before painting (mostly because I'm la-zy), and we bought the paint (Valspar Gray Silt) with the primer already mixed in, so we skipped the priming as well. (I don't know if I should be proud or ashamed for being such a slacker.) Aaaaaand, foam rollers are your best friend when painting furniture like this--small for those hard to reach places and no brush strokes! Heck. Yeah. Two coats of paint and it looks great and seems to be holding up really well!



Tuesday Loves.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Let's do clothing and accessories this week, shall we?



Casual and checked.






Source: cusp.com via Katy on Pinterest


I cannot express how obsessed I am with this dress. Too bad I'm lacking a waistline at the moment or else I would try and find it for myself. ;)








Marc Jacobs scarf.....ah, I need it. I need it. I need it.













Are you noticing a trend as well? I guess I need to go out and get something black and white....it's all I've been drawn to lately!


Hope you have a great day today!

Our Crib

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Helllllllloooooooooo everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. We spent a VERY busy one with my parents who drove in from Colorado to help us with the nursery. We got a lot done, but more importantly, had a lot of fun. I miss my mom and dad so much it's ridiculous...in fact I may have bawled my eyes out on three separate occasions since they left. Oh, pregnancy hormones, why must you torture me?

On a more productive note, we got our cute crib painted! (Among many other secret things that I will show you later.) I bought it off of Craigslist in Denver (which is one reason why my parents made the trip) for $40!! Yeah yeah!

It is SO perfect. I wanted something with simple lines....classic looking, not too bulky. When I came across this baby, I knew it was THE ONE. So here is what is looked like before:










And here is what it looked like after a couple of coats of paint!











Oh MAN, I just love it so much. We foam rolled the whole thing with a quart of Valspar's "Gray Silt". It's got a bit of green in it which I absolutely love and matches the fabrics that we special ordered perfectly (hint hint).

Now the only thing we need to do is replace the black plastic wheels with some antique brass ones. Or something similar.....I haven't decided yet. Oh, and we may have to take the whole thing apart to fit it in the nursery door....HA, whoops :).

Have a happy Monday and a great week. Remember to give your parents a hug if you live close, please!



EDIT: I got a couple of questions from you lovely ladies regarding how we went about painting the crib. My bad for not explaining earlier! I actually didn't sand it at all before painting (mostly because I'm la-zy), and we bought the paint (Valspar Gray Silt) with the primer already mixed in, so we skipped the priming as well. (I don't know if I should be proud or ashamed for being such a slacker.) Aaaaaand, foam rollers are your best friend when painting furniture like this--small for those hard to reach places and no brush strokes! Heck. Yeah. Two coats of paint and it looks great and seems to be holding up really well!

25 Weeks

Friday, January 20, 2012


To our baby boy,

You have grown so much in the last few weeks! My pregnancy app on my iPhone (it will be interesting to see if you even know what an iPhone is by the time you read this) says that you are the size of an eggplant! I've honestly never seen a whole eggplant before, but I imagine it's pretty big because I'm getting pretty big. Your dad just loves to comment on that fact! He says (probably more than once a day), "How's my boy? He's getting pretty big!", which is really cute because his voice is already so gentle but there's this excitement in it that I've never heard before. He's so proud of you, and it kind of makes me want to cry just thinking about it.

 I also read that you are finally starting to get some fat on that little body of yours, which makes me happy because there is nothing I love more than chunky babies. You are supposed to weigh about 1 1/2 pounds right now, but I'm betting that you weigh 2 pounds since you surpassed 1 1/2 pounds at our last ultrasound. I'm perfectly okay with that though since your daddy is praying that you will be big and strong to play baseball and football. 

 I know that your dad will be all over you about sports and that you will spend plenty of time with him up at the baseball field (that's what you get when your dad's a coach), but could you please, please, please promise me that you'll hang out with me too? We could read books and play games, and go the park, and the science museum, and camp out in the back yard. I think about doing those types of things with you a lot. Although, I have to admit, I am SO excited to see you in your little t-ball uniform. I can pretty much guarantee that I will be the mom who is overly involved in all of your sports teams. I'm sorry in advance if I embarrass you, but I promise that I will bring good snacks for the team after games to make up for it!

There are only 15 more weeks (more or less) until you will be here! Neither of us can wait! We are in full swing preparing for your arrival and I feel like there is so much more to do than I originally anticipated! I signed us up for child birthing classes this week (to get you out safe and sound) and your Nonnie and Pops are driving into Lubbock today to help us paint and put together your nursery. Everyone loves you so much already, and getting ready for you to actually be here makes my heart happy. We can't wait to meet you!


Love,
Your Momma

Pinterest Yellow Cake Recipe and a Question

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Happy Thursday! It's almost the weekend again, can you believe it?

So, Bryan turned the big 2-5 last week and we celebrated with lots of presents and my first go at making homemade birthday cake.







I have to say, it was pretty freakin' good. Like good enough that it's already all gone, and there are only two people that live in our house :). (In my defense, I AM eating for two!)

Normally I just make the boxed cake mix, but I really wanted to mark something off of my constantly growing recipe board on Pinterest. I've probably pinned about 400 recipes and have only made 6....can I get an amen, or am I the only one who does that?

I went with this recipe. I won't copy and paste the original since you can just click on the link if you want to see it, but I will say that if you don't have any self-rising flour handy (like me) you can substitute all-purpose flour and add 1.5 tsp baking powder and .5 tsp salt for every cup of flour mixed in and it works just great! Enjoy!


Now, on to my question: Can someone PLEASE give me some pointers on how the heck to get cake out of a cake pan in one piece? Every single layer of this cake left about half of itself in the pan when I was trying to get it out.  Ugh. It was a tasty cake, but not a pretty one.

I tried everything I know--cooking spray, butter, flour, shaking, patting....everything. I even put wax paper on the bottom of the last one and while it worked much better than using nothing at all, it still came out in several pieces. Help, please! Thanks in advance :).


Have any of you tried any Pinterest recipes that turned out to be amazing?? Please share them if you have!

Have a great day!

Tuesday Loves.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Hello and happy Tuesday, friends! Here is some of what is inspiring me this week in the interior design world.


I think that I want our kitchen (that I talked about in this post) to be updated kinda like this first picture. I LOVE two-toned cabinets. And I think that doing a darker color on the bottom half will make cleaning much easier (and less stressful) for my clean-freak ways. And isn't that little schoolhouse pendant adorable?





GREAT shelf styling. I mean seriously, could they have done it any better? I love the bright blues expecially!






Um, paneling anyone?? This is just to die for, in my opinion.







Ah, another great kitchen. I love the industrial lighting and the botanical prints.....I may sneak a few of those in our kitchen. You don't see too many framed prints in kitchens, but I have to say, I like it. I like it a lot!






This room has so much to look at and I really love the gallery wall. I've wanted to do one in our house for quite some time, but don't know where.....and I don't own any mismatched frames. Hmph. I will have to work on that.







Another perfect example of shelf styling. And the paneling in the background is just great.








Welp, that's it for today! Is there anything that sticks out to you in these pictures that I missed?


P.S. I finally updated the DIY Gallery link over on my sidebar so that it actually has my crafts on it! No more blank pages for my blog friends :). Also, I added a button to view our Christmas 2011 Home Tour just in case you wanted to take a peek! Yay for updating the blog! I was really thinking it would never happen....

Dining Room Updates

Monday, January 16, 2012

Hi! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

As I mentioned in this post and this post, we have been hard at work in our dining room lately. It was the first space that we wanted to update in 2012 and I'm happy to say that we've already made a few major changes!

I last left you with this....



Ugh. I know. It was horrible. That was LAST January, right after we put in the wood floors.


In 2011, I purchased a pedastel table off of Craigslist (one of my all time FAVORITE pieces of furniture), and a few new bamboo dining chairs from Pier One. But then they just sat there....so lonely and sad. To make matters worse, the dining table was really scratched up after years of wear and tear during its stint with the original owners. Ten months later (truth), Christmas break rolled around and my wonderful, amazing, super talented husband finally sanded and refinished the table top....



A warm cherry....no scratches....be still my heart. :)

We also hung a few prints that I cut out of a Monet painting book (courtesy of Amazon) in some $10 frames from Ross. We even made custom mattes using the method I showed you all here.

AND THEN. And then, I came across a very cute rug. And bought it. I was actually about to walk away from it (to weigh my options) until I saw another lady seriously eyeing it. My competitive side got the best of me, and I snatched that rug up as fast as possible and bounced my little pregnant self right to cash register. I tell you...it was quite a sight. :)

Soooooo....here is not an "After" picture but definitely a "Much Improved" picture:





SO much better, right?

I know I originally talked about buying a dining room rug from Overstock in this post, but I decided to go in a different direction (suprise, suprise) after thinking a lot about the fact that the dining table sits right next to our back door which is a huge source of dirt and dust and dirty dog coming in and out of the house. Although I was in looooove with the light colored rugs I found on Overstock, I knew that it would be much more practical (for the sake of my OCD) to get something dark and durable.





Ahhhhhh, it's like a breath of fresh air to me. Still far from being done, but much more "grown up" than it was just a year ago :).

Before:






In Progress:





Now we just need to get to work on changing or updating that dang light fixture. I'm just not a fan. And I would love to paint the back door at some point. Any thoughts on colors? Any ideas for how to update the light fixture?? I am BEGGING you, please help!

Have a very happy MLK day! If you are enjoying the day off, I am SUPER jealous. :) But have fun for me!

24 Weeks.

Thursday, January 12, 2012




I've seen some great blogs that do weekly updates with Q&A's on how their pregnancies are progressing (like Little Baby Garvin and my new friend Natasha at Schue Love--so sweet!) so I thought I would give that a try this week. I'll probably mix these in with letters every so often....or I may not. I'm just going with the flow!


How far along? 24 Weeks! Only 16 more to go...
Baby Size: Almost a foot long! My app says to "picture an ear of corn". He weighs about 2 pounds!
Total weight gain/loss: Ha. I think I'm up 16 pounds. Eeek.
Maternity clothes? I haven't had to wear many maternity clothes just yet. I'm still wearing my old jeans and pants, but they don't seem to want to zip up anymore so I have two maternity tank tops and a Bella Band that I wear to hold them up. Still in all of my old shirts!
Stretch marks? No....and I'm hoping and praying that is stays that way! :)
Sleep: I sleep pretty well at night, but miss being able to sleep on my stomach. Sometimes I wake up on my stomach (whoops) and Bryan always freaks out. It's sweet. He's so worried about his boy!
Best moment this week: Ummm.... okay I've got one. I always tell Bryan how baby boy likes to kick HARD in the middle of the night...like to the point that he's woken me up. Well, I fell asleep before Bryan did on Monday night (which rarely happens) and he told me the next day that he just laid in bed with his hand on my belly and was able to feel him kick like crazy. I thought it was so sweet that he stayed up for that!
Miss Anything?  Not feeling like I live in a bubble! I never really knew just how much there is that pregnant women aren't allowed to do. I don't like it! I do my best to be healthy and careful for sweet baby boy, but I can't wait to feel normal again!
Movement: Yes! Kicks and punches every day for the last 6 weeks or so. Especially late at night and when I'm sitting still.
Food cravings: Hmmm....PIZZA. We've had it probably twice a week since I was 9 or 10 weeks. I love Papa John's! I also LOVE orange juice, mexican food, fruit in general, and tomatoes. Just typing the word "tomatoes" made my mouth water. Weird, right?
Anything making you queasy or sick:  Not anymore, thank goodness! I pretty much hated all food the first 14 weeks. And smells were the WORST. I couldn't even burn my pumpkin scented candle last fall because it made me gag :(. Now I only get queasy if my stomach is empty.
Have you started to show yet: I have a little bump! There wasn't much there at all until about 21 weeks though....up until then I just looked like I had a big lunch. Actually, people still tell me that I don't look pregnant, which I guess is a good thing :). I can still hide it if I really want to with flowy shirts....which is what I wear pretty much everyday.
Gender: BOY! Can't wait to meet him. And to figure out a name for him!
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly Button in or out? Still an innie!
Wedding rings on or off? On...and still pretty loose!
Happy or Moody most of the time: Ha. Both. But it's always both, even when I'm not pregnant. :)
Looking forward to: Going to our 24 week appointment this week! I hope they give us a quick ultrasound. I love getting to see him! I'm also really excited for my mom to come into town next weekend. She is going to help me get some fun nursery stuff done! And then my in-laws will come by the weekend after that, so me and my mother-in-law will yet again check some things off of the "nursery to-do list". So excited!

2012 Home Goals: Part Two

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Hello, hello!

Let's talk about Home Goals, shall we? I went over Part One of our 2012 Home Goals on Monday, and now I think I'll go ahead and finish off the list. :)

I think we left off with #5....


6. Sod the backyard....


Have I ever told you that the backyard is my nemesis? No? Okay, well....the backyard is my nemesis.

We put in new flowerbeds last year to compensate for the lack of grass that grew underneath our huge willow trees. Then.....the worst drought on the PLANET happened and killed half of the plants and some more of the existing grass.  So...we need to do something about it. I was hesitant at first, but we've been told that bermuda grass will do just fine in super hot temperatures regardless of when we plant it. We'll also need to re-mulch the beds and put in a few more drought tolerant plants. :) Here's hoping!



7. Spruce up the back patio.


Originally we (Bryan) were going to build a pergola in this space, but decided to hold off until we can get the yard looking somewhat decent. While we may wait and see what happens with that, I would like to get a patio table and chairs (for a super cheap price) to sit outside and have dinner on summer nights. And maybe an outdoor rug. And a few flowerpots. And maybe some other stuff too....I haven't figured too much out just yet. :)


8. Paint the patio door.



I would like to clean this little space up and paint the door to match our front door. I love when things match! It's the OCD....


9. Start over on the guest bedroom.



Excuse the mismatched bedding (the pillows don't even have cases on them) and the uneven paint job. This room used to be the junk room, but has since transformed into the guest bedroom. Well actually, it looks more like a catch-all room right now, but I've got big plans to make it over! It's also where the closet office is located, so I really want to make it new again to match the new office :).


10. Decorate the nursery!!!!



I am SO so pumped about this one, but still very overwhelmed on how to go about it. This will be my little man's room and I want it to be perfect. I've probably thought more about this room than I have any other space in the house. In fact, this weekend Bryan and I are heading to the fabric store (for hopefully the last time) to nail down fabrics for the nursery. I almost started crying the last time I went by myself, so he agreed to come and help. Great husband, right?


And that's it! For now, haha. My brain's always coming up with ideas and then throwing them out two minutes later. We shall see what actually ends up being accomplished this year. :) Have a wonderful Thursday!

It's almost the weekend (doing a little dance at my keyboard)!

Tuesday Loves.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

These are just a few things that I have been loving lately....


I saw this in BHG last year and have been obsessed with the styling and the lamp (and the peonies...) ever since...


Beautiful couch and pillow!


I'm hoping to paint the inside of our door this year....maybe a shade similar to this?




This outfit is pure perfection in my eyes. Love Kendi and her writing style!




I'm obsessed with the fact that none of this matches. It is sooooooo great. And those pants?? Gah! Does anyone else think this girl looks like Donna from That 70's Show? No? Maybe it's just me.



For my little boy....cutie :)



This quote has come in handy for me lately...you'll find out why soon enough!




Ahhhh, a recipe for apple cider caramels. The perfect winter treat. Be still my heart.




Anyone else been obsessed with anything in particular lately? I love me some new inspiration :).

Have a great Tuesday!